


Respite

by BrosleCub12



Category: Glee
Genre: 2011 Klaine, British Chocolate, Burt is a protective Dad, Episode: s02e18 Born This Way, Family Issues, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, POV Blaine, series 2 fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 20:50:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12218697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrosleCub12/pseuds/BrosleCub12
Summary: Kurt is the sweetest guy whom Blaine has ever dated.





	Respite

**Author's Note:**

> Woah, this is a trip down memory lane for me! Okay, so bit of a story here: seven years ago I was studying abroad in America - in the New York State area - for my third year and one of the perks was being able to watch series 2 of Glee straight away. Blaine's character captured my heart and I followed the series closely; along with Sherlock it really helped me during some tough times, after being far away from home in a new culture and going through some messy personal stuff. Fanfiction was a fantastic coping mechanism for me during this time and I spent a lot of time at my desk, writing fic; this was one of them, written near the end of the academic year when I needed a pick-me-up and was originally posted on Livejournal. 
> 
> I've recently been taking a rejuvenated interest in Glee and yeah, I'll admit that between Series 2 and Series 6, Klaine went through a lot of problems and many of them were caused, I'll admit, by Blaine himself - although by the final episode, he seemed a lot happier and secure. But I just loved that first feeling of shipping them as a twenty-year-old who was out in the world on her own and I still have a lifelong love for Darren Criss. I just really enjoyed revisting that today with this fic, which I've cleaned up and updated a little and I thought I'd share it with the community here. It was was actually written just before Born This Way aired, after the Warbler performance of Somewhere Only We Know was the only clear hint about the episode, so I tweaked it a bit to bring it more in line with canon. I really hope you like it. 
> 
> This was never betaed - I've no idea where to find a beta-reader these days - but the community on LJ responded favourably to it so it's... sort of a beta? :P 
> 
> Obviously, I don't own Glee. Nor do I own the British chocolate mentioned below.
> 
> *

Kurt is the sweetest guy whom Blaine has ever dated.

Well, actually – he’s the _only_ guy Blaine has ever dated (and it says something now that apart from the obvious public humiliation, he doesn’t even feel the slightest twinge of regret over Jeremiah). Really, he’s the sweetest guy whom Blaine’s ever _known._

There’s something about Kurt – with his lilting smile and wide deer eyes – that draws him in. It’s the way he looks across at Blaine with delicate features, but happy ones, the gentle press of his lips against his chin, his cheek, the tender way he figures out what to do as they go along, guide each other through this boyfriend territory thing. 

And really, it’s not even surprising to know that there is a tough streak there somewhere; how could there not be? It flits across Kurt’s eyes in anger and rises up in song; that very thing, that very element that’s kept him going all this time. 

And it’s what still keeps Kurt going when it dawns, finally, that he has to go back to McKinley. 

Burt and Carole’s faces are apologetic as they sit the two boys down that afternoon with the bank statements, Finn watching awkwardly in the background with a white moustache over a carton of milk (torn, Blaine thinks afterwards, between hesitance and hopefulness over having Kurt back in New Directions and there’s absolutely _no way_ that Kurt will be drinking that milk tonight).

Burt delivers the news like it’s a blow, as though it’s his regret, his fault and it’s not; how could it be? Honestly, Blaine knows he has his parents to thank for taking him away from the bullying, he gets that; _knows_ that they put him into Dalton to keep him safe, he really does.

... It still doesn’t change the fact that Kurt and Burt have a bond that he’ll probably never really _know._

The thing is: Karofsky is repentant. The thing is: he’s said he’ll never hurt Kurt again – that he’ll walk him from class to class in this new anti-bullying thing they’ve got going on at McKinley and Blaine has been terrified at the thought of Kurt walking back into the lion’s den.

But there’s no lion. Just a big, sorrowful, probably-confused footballer wearing a red beret who deserves nothing less than sympathy; a parents-teacher meeting that Kurt leaves, composed and unruffled; and a whole group of friends in the McKinley choir-room whom Kurt has sorely missed, no matter how much he’s tried to hide it during Warbler practice. 

So, basically. Yeah. 

*

It’s… not that Blaine doesn’t like being at home, but there’s a stiffness under the Andersons’ roof some days, a silence he tries to fill with the strumming of his guitar, the colours of his bedroom. His mother tries to fill it with showtunes, tries to encourage him to sing with her – usually when his Dad’s not around. There’s a wall sometimes at the dinner table: the fact that he likes guys – and that one day, he _is_ going to go to bed with one, there’s no doubt about that – and that he had to find out the facts on his computer, all the while clutching a strong coffee from Lima Bean in his left hand. 

And he never really realised how much he used to look forward to hanging out with Kurt before. Before, when he was at McKinley was great, but when he came to Dalton, it made things flexible; easier. _Better._

So yes, when he and Kurt say goodbye, properly, after that big farewell number (and he never thought he’d get teary-eyed at the sound of Keane) they’re _both_ crying.

‘It’s alright,’ Kurt murmurs to him; his eyelashes are wet and clinging, but he’s smiling all the same, voice controlled but gentle, ‘Blaine, it’s alright. I’ll see you this weekend.’  
He says it as a statement, a promise even, seals it with a kiss. They share a fluttering laugh, a sad smile, and Blaine clings onto the thought that absence makes the heart grow fonder and that he really, _really_ can’t be selfish over this. 

But still, with Kurt gone, it’s still so _empty._ It leaves Blaine’s life at Dalton with a huge hole, like that first cold day back after Christmas. Wes and David try and keep him busy with rehearsals and homework, but there’s no getting around the fact that there’s now one empty seat in the room; one missing face.

That’s not the only thing that does. The Friday after Kurt leaves, finally, after a really long week at school, his plans to meet up with him over the weekend – and he’s just really been looking forward to it; looking for that preserved time when he can just see Kurt – turn into a row with his Dad over delayed homework, eventually becoming a close scrutinising about ‘this boy called Kurt you hang out with’ that makes Blaine’s hair stand on end and his temper flare and damn it, he _really_ can’t be in the house right now. 

One shaking phone call and one long drive later and he turns up on Kurt’s doorstep, a whole twelve hours before he was supposed to be there. Kurt greets him, is subtle in front of his family – this boyfriend thing, they are still _really_ new at it – and Blaine wonders if he’s a horrible person for envying Kurt so much when Burt just waves aside his apologies for disturbing their evening. There is however, a reminder, a small _something_ from the night Blaine slept in Kurt’s bed in the way Burt tells them to call if they need anything, but is looking directly at his son rather than at him. 

The curl of Kurt’s fingers around his – and he really didn’t realise how much he’d missed them – leads them past the dinner-table and up into his room, the safety of a haven. It’s almost like – well, not the “old days” because they’re only talking a couple of weeks, here – but it’s a welcome return of the way things were. He can only drop down on the bed with a sigh, long moments of driving through the dark with the radio determinedly blasting to block out the noise in his head catching up with him right before Kurt bends down to hug him. 

One long drive... worth all of it for this, Blaine thinks as he wraps his arms around Kurt’s back, feels the welcome press of his face against his shoulder, welcomes back everything he’s missed all week. 

‘Talk,’ Kurt tells him then; orders him, even and yes, there’s that tough streak, ‘I’ve got British chocolate; Carol has a cousin who has a friend who just got back from London and both of them are conveniently childless. I recommend the Twirls.’

Which is how they end up sitting, cross-legged, on Kurt’s bed, a pile of purples and yellows and reds between them – the ones at least that Kurt managed to filch from Finn’s pile to take over to Puck’s – and Blaine finds he’s quite partial to a Twirl, but the Yorkie bar’s good too (Kurt appears to take pleasure in defying the label’s sexist warning that ‘it’s not for girls,’ whoever the hell made that up). Kurt licks the tips of his fingers – and he’s not doing it deliberately, Blaine knows that, he’s just trying to get all the chocolate off – but it should not be so enticing, the way it’s done with such soft precision. 

Fact is, _everything_ about Kurt is enticing.

They should go to London one day, he thinks vaguely at the back of his mind, make a vacation out of it. Have fun, see the sights… Maybe when they’re in college and they get a free summer. Anyway, Kurt is listening attentively through the sound of munching and rustling as Blaine takes the opportunity to rant, fighting against the headache of his father’s words – _‘You’ll never make a grade if you keep running off to Lima every other night’_ but Blaine works hard, dammit, gives 110% like he’s _supposed_ to, balances his classes and Warbler practise like he _knows_ he can do; pushes himself whilst Cooper, _perfect_ Cooper, seems to glide along with no strain or effort whatsoever – and it’s not until he’s almost through and spies the open, even peaceful look on Kurt’s face that it suddenly hits him that, for the first time in a long time... he actually has _somebody_ to rant to. He’s tried before: principal’s offices, hall attendants who would look the other way, sympathetic kids in a similar boat, but who still weren’t gay. 

He remembers the tears, the crumple of Kurt’s shy smile that first day: _‘Nobody seems to notice...’_

... Blaine doesn’t want to be misunderstood; he’s got Wes and David and they are good friends, good buddies, of course, but there’s always been a... a certain focus, within the Warblers: The show must go on. And rightfully so, sure, but just, _sometimes..._

And then Kurt came along. And yeah, they have disagreed, but somehow... somehow it just doesn’t matter because he’s still here. And he’s that ear; that still hand against his shaking shoulder, moving him along all the time. 

In fact, before Kurt arrived... things... well, they were okay, but actually, in a way... they also kind of sucked.

‘Sorry,’ he shrugs, sheepish; grinds to a halt. ‘I’m. Done now.’ He rubs his neck and sits gingerly on the edge of the bed; Kurt chuckles, the sound like an echo in a beautiful vase.

‘Quite hot to see you lose your temper. Don’t worry, it’s fine,’ he assures, rattling open a red bag – Maltesers – and staring into it, looking as oddly abashed as only he can be sometimes. ‘Anyway, I – I missed you.’ 

Blaine smiles softly at that. ‘I missed you too.’

‘And I know,’ Kurt presses, ‘I know that long-distance relationships take a lot of work and allow the masterminds behind Skype to make an absolute fortune out of teary eyes and sentimental love songs over the webcam.’ He grins, ever-so-slightly coy, and Blaine raises an eyebrow, wonders...

‘But,’ Kurt approaches the bed and sits down beside him, his weight warm on Blaine’s left, ‘I guess that... we can make it work, right?’

He’s cautious suddenly, sweetly scrutinising even, and for the first time Blaine realises that actually, yeah – it is going to take a bit of getting used to. He recalls something said by Jeremiah – feels another flush of embarrassment – during their first coffee; about his friends who had gone off to college, a mention of long-distance relations being made among them (one of the many so-called “clues” that culminated in that stupid, ridiculous Gap Attack) and actually, the thought of this, what him and Kurt have, being asked to stand the test of miles... it makes him feel just a little more grown-up.

‘Other people do it,’ he muses thoughtfully to Kurt, accepting a Malteser – can’t actually remember whether Jeremiah said it worked out or not with his friends, tends not to remember a lot from that particular experience, _denial denial denial_ – ‘Why shouldn’t we?’

Kurt seems contented at that, lips quirking upwards; he leans against him and Blaine just can’t resist pressing a kiss against his temple – not his hair, because Kurt will scream – and they just sit, Kurt holding up the Malteser packet between them and they’re munching away on milk chocolate and sweet honeycomb when Burt knocks on the door.  
‘Can I come in?’ he peeks around, seems to take an approving stock of the way they’re sitting on the edge of the bed before he enters.

‘I, er, just wanted to tell you, Blaine,’ his eyes are fixing, tone cautious, ‘that, ah, it’s getting kind of late, so...’ and for a split second Blaine is mentally prepared for that polite, protective command to please leave, ‘... you want to stay over and go back in the morning, that’s fine.’ 

... Oh.

Blaine’s aware that his surprise is mirrored on Kurt’s face; there’s a second where they blink at each other – sharing something, he thinks later, like the sap he not-so-secretly is – before Kurt gets up from the bed. 

‘Thankyou, Dad,’ he walks across, arms spread out and hugs him; Burt returns it with that odd, familial gruffness – ‘You’re welcome’ – one arm, firm and strong, around his shoulders, although glancing around his son at Blaine with what can only be a kind of reserved wariness. 

And of course there is a condition, which can only be expected: ‘Finn’s staying over at Puckerman’s house,’ Burt tells them, ‘so Blaine, you can stay in his room tonight, alright?’ There’s no question about it behind his carefully conceding tone, about the way he still sounds so firmly parental - but only so far as a bear who’s keeping one eye on his cub and the other on the stray wolf that’s just wandered in, sympathetic and shielding together. 

No wonder Kurt’s so _good,_ with a dad like that. 

Burt wishes them goodnight with the concession that they can stay up until midnight, ‘just for tonight, guys.’ He glances at Blaine on the way out, stops with his hand on the door.

‘You know; you can always use our phone to ring your folks,’ he tells him, ‘let them know where you are. Tomorrow’s another day, right?’

Good advice. Sage advice; but right now, right this minute – and he knows it’s childish – Blaine _can’t._ And it shows in his face, obviously, because Burt just nods and with a final, ‘Alright, night, guys,’ leaves them to it.

Blaine doesn’t really realise how engrossed he is in staring randomly down at the floor, Burt’s words reverberating strangely, until Kurt presses a kiss against his cheek, chaste and lingering. Comforting, in its press and Blaine just... he really can’t help but smile, especially not when he sees the way that Kurt smiles, the way he links his arm through his and threads their hands (and that’s one thing he loves about this, the fact that they’ve covered hand-holding already, can do it whenever they like and hopefully with so much more to come). TLC, pure and simple; what Blaine’s been waiting for, for such a long time. 

They eat chocolate together and giggle over show-tunes on their phones and forget about tomorrow, because it can take care of itself. 

*

**Author's Note:**

> Why British chocolate, you ask? Well, I often took the bus to the local Wegman's every Saturday to stock up in the International aisle; I missed my UK sweets far too much. That kind of... found its own way into the story! ^_^ 
> 
> Regarding Finn: I did seriously consider removing all mentions of him from the fic out of respect, but in the end I felt it was wrong to do so. He's only a brief background character here and obviously he was a crucial part of Kurt's life during these years and of course of the whole of Glee, so I couldn't just erase the character out of this fic's existence. As part of the adjustments I added more focus on Karofsky's repentance as that wasn't really part of the original story. Also new are the mentions of Blaine's awesome Mum (who I really wish we'd met earlier!) and a nod to Cooper, as this was written long before we knew about him.


End file.
